1:35 Sd.Kfz 222 early road wheels flat tires type 1 (4pcs + spare for Hobby Boss)

A swap even a beginner can manage

The job tends to be simpler than it looks. The wheels from the box are separated from the sprue, the new parts go in their place, and the whole alteration happens before the car is painted at all. That is just why replacing the running gear ranks among the most rewarding changes to a kit: the difficulty is low, whereas the difference on the finished model is visible even to someone who has never heard of the vehicle.

Captured here is the early shape of the reconnaissance car Sd.Kfz 222 together with tires the air has quite escaped from. The rubber has collapsed, the walls are rippled, the bottom spreads into a broad footprint. The tread design carries the designation type 1. Alongside the flat shape the maker also lists a merely pressed-down variant for the same vehicle, so the choice depends on whether the car is to stand on its axles ready to set off, or to remain laid up.

The name states four wheels for the axles and one more. This particular item is prepared for the Hobby Boss kit and matches the shape of its stubs, so you can do without packing and shimming.

When seating them it helps to watch how the folds on the tire wall are layered. The deepest of them belongs at the bottom, toward the ground, where the greatest part of the weight would rest on a real car.

The vehicle itself belonged to the lighter category. The armor withstood splinters and a rifle hit, but not an anti-tank weapon, and so the crew relied on speed and on a good view out. All the worse it went for a car that lost its mobility, and a scene like that is what this set can build.